POLL | Does displaying the old SA flag constitute hate speech?

Lobby group AfriForum is at the receiving end of criticism for its application to overturn a court ruling on displaying the apartheid flag in public and private spaces.

The group is applying to have the equality court ruling that declared the display of the flag a form of hate speech, overturned. 

The appeal will be heard by the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein this week.

AfriForum CEO Ernst Roets said the lobby group and its members do not display the flag, but that they want a distinction made clear between free speech and hate speech. 

“We have to be careful about stepping on to a slippery slope where we start regarding things that are offensive as hate speech and ban them on that basis. This is the reason AfriForum is involved in this matter, not because of the flag as such, but the underlying principle of freedom of speech,” said Roets. 

The display of the apartheid flag was declared hate speech in 2019 after the Nelson Mandela Foundation and SA Human Rights Commission brought the matter to court. The application was in response to the display of the flag during a 2017 protest held by AfriForum against farm murders.

Judge president Phineas Mojapelo said displaying the flag was racist and discriminatory.

Hate speech was not just limited to words, but extended to conduct and gestures. Displaying the old flag caused more than emotional stress to black people and its display reminded them of the oppression they had moved away from, he said.

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